Williamson back in training with Blades but McDonald stays away

Sheffield United manager Danny Wilson has spoken of his “disappointment” after midfielder Kevin McDonald opted not to turn up for pre-season training this week.

The Blades midfielder is a free agent after his Bramall Lane contract expired at the end of June, but along with Lee Williamson has been offered a new deal at the League One club.

Neither has committed his future to the Blades, but Williamson was back in training on Monday.

Wilson is hoping both follow in Chris Porter’s steps and sign new contracts to stay at Bramall Lane, but has been surprised at McDonald’s no-show.

“There are no decisions from either of the lads yet, so I don’t know if Kevin will sign,” said Wilson. “He didn’t turn up for training on Monday when we expected him, but that is his prerogative.

“I would have liked Kevin here to keep his fitness up because if he does re-sign we want him at our level of fitness.

“Kevin not turning up disappointed me but it doesn’t mean we don’t want him to re-sign because we do.

“We have spoken to him and it is his prerogative to get the best deal he can for himself and his agent has been doing that all summer,” he said.

“At the moment, though, he remains a free agent and we are still in there, pitching very highly. He had a fantastic season last year and we got the best out of him, so I would have thought it would be a good decision for him to stay.

“Kevin needs his fitness to get the performances from him so that is why I expected him to return to training on Monday, but hopefully he will be here before the end of the week.

“We will accept they won’t be signing for us when it is announced that they have moved elsewhere. We will keep looking and we are working on getting contingency plans in place.”

Nottingham Forest have confirmed the Al-Hasawi family are the club’s new owners.

The Kuwaiti-based businessmen Fawaz, Abdulaziz and Omar Al-Hasawi have bought the late Nigel Doughty’s controlling stake.